Isaac Baldwin

Thought-provoking as always. My main question mirrors the post-script.

Is there anything we can do with nosology or language in ASD that would *guarantee* benefit for autistic people and maintain an honest recognition of the complex truths scientists know (and don’t) about the autism spectrum?

“Boredom proneness overlaps with inattention and impulsivity but does not capture hyperactivity, working memory deficits, or problems with planning and organization.”

Excellent article. An example of this distinction: the higher risk of car accidents is probably not due to boredom proneness alone.

An interesting look at integrating several emerging heuristic models in psychiatry. With some discussion of what it would really take to create a paradigm shift.

This is excellent work. Exactly the type of research that can help us resolve the tense debates around the diagnosis, epidemiology, and nosology of catatonia. Spoiler: presentations change fast, even within 24 hours!

The RFK Jr + MAHA alliance may very well ensure that the psychiatric harm movement is eventually remembered not for saving lives from medical overreach, but for wrecking public health in America. The irony of this outcome will not be lost on observers and future commentators.

Recent articles about the use of AI
in psychotherapy make me feel the way an older generation of psychiatrists must have felt watching the interpersonal aspects of their practice being discarded with applause from the business world and media.

Very well deserved

This post made me think of the many times I’ve heard a patient describe their past treatment with misleading metaphorical language, oftentimes inherited from a physician. It’s humbling to remember that our metaphors are carried outside our offices and may shape self understanding for a lifetime.

Exclusive: Trump administration cut autism-related research by 26% so far in 2025 Health Secretary Robert F. Kennedy Jr has vowed to address rising U.S. autism rates as a top health priority for the Trump administration .

Robert F. Kennedy calls autism an epidemic and treats it like a crisis. But the Trump administration has cut autism-related research by 26 percent since he took office.
www.reuters.com/business/hea...

YouTube video by Catatonia and Severe and Challenging Behaviors SIG May 14, 2025: Diagnosis of Catatonia

Thanks to @autismsciencefd.bsky.social for giving me some time to talk about how catatonia is diagnosed in autism. Some really excellent questions at the end. Enjoyed being with you all!

The MAHA vision is of a type of utopia, where those able to utilize lifestyle practices such as organic food to improve health can live a full life. For disabled people and those lives improved by psychiatric medications & public assistance, however… it’s not clear there is a plan for them.

Unshrunk and MAHA: A Diagnosis-Critical Case Study a tangent inspired by my new video :)

4. And what are those motives? Based upon everything we’ve seen so far, it appears to be the promotion of libertarian ideology that sees suffering and disability as individual responsibilities. To replace medical care and social support with “beneficial lifestyle changes”

Piece by Jesse Meadows

Opinion | What Kennedy Gets Right, And Wrong, About Antidepressants Prozac is nearly 40 years old. Why are there still unanswered questions?

3. We are now seeing what appear to be efforts by the government to address longstanding issues (insufficient evidence and awareness regarding the risks of medications). Still, it is clear there are ulterior motives.

Piece by @awaisaftab.bsky.social

American Psychiatry in the Shadow of MAHA and MAGA Reflections on medicine, politics, and public trust

2. Public trust has eroded in medical professions (including and maybe especially psychiatry) for both legitimate reasons (poor communication about certainty, risks, and harms) and because of leaders using rhetoric meant to undermine that trust.

Piece by @awaisaftab.bsky.social

Neurodiversity and the Myth of Moral Decline How to spot reactionary critiques of medicalisation

1. There’s a myth that we used to be healthier in the past, and that we can get back there by shunning the medical establishment. It’s a myth that’s existed for a long time and has more to do with an idea of moral purity than it does with health.
Piece by @drrobertchapman.bsky.social

I’ve been searching for “the point” behind the MAHA movement and RFK’s policies. All the doctors I know feel like it’s headed for disaster. So why does it have so much steam? Some recent pieces have made it clearer to me: (1/6)

If psychiatrists want an effective collective response to the administration’s approach to psychiatric medications, it’s going to take clear-eyed communication like this.

Many major autism advocacy organizations representing a huge variety of viewpoints (sometimes starkly opposing one another) released this joint statement.

Their points:
1. Vaccines do not cause autism
2. Autistic individuals deserve respect and support
3. Evidence-based policy is essential

This is the language of eugenics. Autistic lives are inherently valuable.

An important perspective. Thanks for sharing.

RFK Jr. moves to close Administration for Community Living The shutdown will mean "more people forced into institutional settings."

The Administration for Community Living, housed in HHS, is shutting down. I spoke to disability experts for @motherjones.com about questions they have for what’s next, the services ACL provides, and how this move may lead to more folks being institutionalized. www.motherjones.com/politics/202...

One way the mainstream "over" (or "under") diagnosis discourse is misleading is the assumption there is some natural, correct number of neurodivergent people. But there is no natural number, as disability is relationally, materially, and socially produced.

“The psychiatrist, scrolling through the criticism on their phone, can sigh, close the app, and move on with their evening, while the harmed patient sits, eyes wet, waiting for a response, feeling alone and terrified by the world’s indifference to their suffering.”

Labour seems set on imposing what I've called neoliberalism's privatisation of eugenic responsibility: instead of enforcing mass authoritarian eugenics, the world is made increasingly unlivable; welfare necessary for life is cut; ensuing deaths are then framed as caused by the individual's choices.

YouTube video by Neurohumanities Network Phenomenology in Literature and Neuropsychiatry with Dr. Ramirez-Bermudez

Fantastic presentation by @jrbneuropsiq.bsky.social

www.youtube.com/watch?v=Pl-J...

Neurodiversity and the Myth of Moral Decline How to spot reactionary critiques of medicalisation

RFK and friends would have us believe medicine (especially psychiatry) is ruining our country. He would like to return to a golden age before all this. As this article brilliantly illuminates, there is no such time. Reactionary voices have been blaming medicine for “moral decline” for centuries.

What a piece. This manages to both review a book and paint a picture of the type of psychiatry I think is worth practicing— one that asks deep questions about agency and iatrogenic harm while remaining committed to understanding that patients’ positive experiences with medications are not illusory.

Thanks for sharing! We definitely need more research on cognitive outcomes in ECT

29-Year-Old in ‘Catatonic State’ After Rare Disorder Causes Debilitating Night Terrors Ben Tarver, 29, suffered debilitating night terrors, which were the first symptoms of Anti-NMDA Receptor Encephalitis, a rare autoimmune disorder that landed him in the ICU.

🧵 It’s certainly not typical to find an article about anti NMDA receptor encephalitis or #catatonia in People magazine, but I was pleasantly surprised to find this important read raising awareness of both topics.

people.com/man-29-ends-...

Thank you for tagging! I had not come across this. We desperately need more public awareness of this condition.